Winners announced in 2013 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards

Winners announced in 2013 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards

Celebrating the best of British female IT talent

Today sees the country’s leading female IT experts recognised as the winners in the national FDM everywoman in Technology Awards, unveiled at a ceremony at The Savoy Hotel in London. These are the women driving innovation, pioneering new practices, and fuelling the economy.

This Awards programme, in its third year, is heralded as one of the UK’s leading initiatives to raise the profile of women in IT. Today’s finalists and their incredible achievements are just a snapshot of the ambitious, talented women achieving success in one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors.

With women still occupying less than one in five of all technology positions*, there is still more to be done to encourage women into the sector. Recent research conducted by everywoman and Alexander Mann Solutions – Focus on the Pipeline– highlighted that STEM has the highest number (80%) of female middle managers who want to progress their careers, proof of the level of ambition that exists within the female IT workforce.

The FDM everywoman in Technology Awardsare essential to showcase the women leading the way, from rising stars to directors, as role models who can inspire others to succeed at every level in a business.

Technology offers a wealth of opportunity in terms of the multiplicity of roles available and the roles that the FDM everywoman in Technology Awards winners fulfil clearly demonstrate this. From leaders within corporate organisations, entrepreneurs who are maximising the opportunities offered by new media or researchers who are harnessing technology for a greater good – the opportunities do exist and these women epitomise the very essence of what makes the sector so dynamic and exciting. By celebrating these female champions, everywoman and its partners will raise the profile of careers in technologyamongst new audiences in order to readdress the gender imbalance.

On the morning of the Awards everywoman hosted a Roundtable discussion with senior leaders and influencers of global technology organisations to discuss the challenges facing the industry in attracting the next generation of talent and the consequences if it fails to retain and develop those women already in the pipeline.

The winners in the 2013 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards are:

Woman of the Year – sponsored by FDM Group

Eleni Antoniadou, Co-founder and Chief of Science, Transplants without Donors from London

Entrepreneur of the Year – sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent

Jennifer Sheridan, Founder & CEO, Togeva Ltd from London

Innovator of the Year – sponsored by The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Joanna Montgomery, Founder & CEO, Little Riot from Newcastle

Inspiration of the Year – sponsored by VMware

Deborah Gundle, Founder/Director, Netbuddy from London

Leader of the Year - in a corporate organisation (with over 500 employees) – sponsored by BP

Team Leader of the Year - in a SME (with under 500 employees) – sponsored by salesforce.com

Tamara Lohan, Co-founder & CTO, Mr & Mrs Smith from London
In addition, for the first time, a special Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Alexander Mann Solutions, was presented - to pioneering IT entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley. This Award recognised her significant contribution to the industry, her game-changing influence and lifelong passion for inspiring and enabling women to achieve success in technology.

Maxine Benson MBE, co-founder of everywoman comments: “This year the judging panel were overwhelmed by the extraordinary talents, energy and drive of all the finalists and selecting these winners was no easy feat. Each one of these inspirational women excels in many different ways, yet they share many qualities – a clear vision, incredible passion for IT and a firm belief that there are no barriers to what can be achieved. The technology sector has demonstrated its commitment in the past few decades to embracing and nurturing its female talent, and we hope by celebrating thesewinners today, we can encourage others to follow in their footsteps.”

Sheila Flavell, Chief Operating Officer and Founder Director of FDM Group adds, “The FDM everywoman in Technology Awards are a fantastic platform to showcase and celebrate the efforts and successes of so many high-calibre women in such a male-dominated industry. We are delighted to be sponsoring the 2013 Awards and support everywoman in their determination to raise the profile of women in technology. Like everywoman, FDM is fully committed to helping more women further their careers and break through the & lsquo;glass ceiling’. At FDM, we are dedicated to supporting our female workforce and encouraging other women to pursue IT, and as a result we have seen the percentage of female staff increase to 23%, well above the 14.4% industry average.”

Maggie Berry, Managing Director of Women in Technology says: “We are delighted to be working with everywoman again to uncover some of the hidden female talent in the

UK's technology profession through this 2013 awards programme. We want to actively champion the women who are already doing great work in this sector and who, through these awards, will become inspirational role models for a future generation of female technologists.”
The ceremony was compered by TV presenter Angela Lamont and attended by hundreds of leading figures from the technology industry and wider business community. These included, amongst others, senor female IT executives from sponsoring companies as well as senior VPs from Aviva IBM JP Morgan and Shell.